Convicted
by IdolsAndAnchors
Summary: Seventeen was not the right age to be in prison. Prison was meant for adults, bad people who had committed horrid crimes, and people who deserved to be hidden away from the world… forever. Guards and soldiers proved worthless, but Kiba didnt. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello all :D Yes, another story. This isn't a High school fic, which is different because usually that's all I write during my spare time, but I'm still going to give it a go anyway. It's slightly AU, and after receiving a few PM's, it looks like Kiba and Sakura takes the cake ;) So I hope you enjoy it, if you don't like it, then don't comment telling me how much you hate it, just leave and read something else. Thanks. Anyway, enjoy!**

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><p>Isn't it strange how the smallest of actions can turn into such a big chain of events?<p>

Seventeen was not the right age to be in prison. Prison was meant for adults, bad people who had committed horrid crimes, and people who deserved to be hidden away from the public… forever. No, prison was not where a seventeen year old girl belonged. Having men force themselves upon her, guards mistreat her, officer's abuse her... it was no place for a girl. Especially Sakura.

There seemed to be a lot of things that were completely unnecessary and cruel happening around her. Her town was being invaded by who knows who; one day everything was normal, and the next there was nothing but wreckage, mess and death everywhere. The questions that had occurred over and over again in her head went on unanswered. Who were these people? What did they want? Why were they invading? But not a single person around her knew. The only information she could gather from the people and family surrounding her was that it had been subtly coming for months now; food in the markets was becoming scarce, livestock was being stripped away from farmers and properties, workers were being laid off causing many families across the village to fall into poverty, and money was becoming severely limited.

Sakura's family had never had much money. They were born into poverty many generations ago and would remain that way for a very long time to come. They did, however, have enough money to survive and live off through staggering winters and long exhausting things got hard after the invasion… really hard. Strangers roamed the streets stripping villagers of everything they had, even shop keepers and workers were being bullied and belted into giving up everything they owned. The streets were torn down and trashed until there was very little left except the rubble and rubbish which covered the ground. Soon enough going in to hiding and having to steal to survive sadly became a necessity. And then, one day out of nowhere, stores started to re-open again, and food and clean water was back with only one exception; either pay an extremely high price for very little supply, or sell something of yourself. And for most women, that meant themselves.

But Sakura was stronger than a lot of other girls her age, and she often used this to her advantage. She had always been a rebel; getting into mischief with the villagers and caught misbehaving was a part of her. So when the time came where her family had finally hit rock bottom, they relied on someone who was willing to take risks to help them survive and unfortunately Sakura was their only option.

It was during the middle of one of Konoha's coldest winters. It was early in the morning and most of the villagers were sleeping or hiding away. The ''Strangers'', as Sakura liked to call them, were usually all asleep at such an hour as well. Their fat overweight bodies usually rested comfortably in the finest of homes that they stripped away from the higher class villagers. Sometimes at night when Sakura couldn't sleep she could hear loud voices coming from their houses as they celebrated with food and woman they had picked up from off the streets. It made Sakura sick to her stomach.

As she made her way through early morning fog, she tried to ignore the icy sting the air left on her bare arms. She walked carefully behind the backs streets making sure she avoided the main roads where guards were usually on patrol. Sometimes she had been extra risky and taken the main streets, just so she could get a look at the faces on some of the guards and try to figure out what village or country they may have come from. Most of them were large and rounded, obviously well fed and far from malnourished. They all seemed to have a very pale complexion; maybe from a village that had very little sunlight? She wasn't sure. But one thing she knew was that where ever they came from, there was more to come. When they attacked they flooded in like locusts, taking out all of south Konoha's military forces like they were ants. And week after week more of them arrived with heavy machinery and weapons that Sakura couldn't even recognise. But that morning she didn't bother going through the main streets. There was something about the place that day that didn't seem quite right; it wasn't as quiet as it usually was. She found herself constantly jumping as pieces of steel fell from half demolished buildings and houses and at the sudden appearance of enemy officers. A few guards were even wondering around the back streets which was unusual, so Sakura kept her head low. Some of the things she saw that morning were haunting; bodies of little children appeared every now and then on the side of the road, their body's skinny and ruined from starvation. At some stage she came across a woman who would have been in her mid-twenties, walking half naked down the centre of the street. Her clothes were ratted and torn off by force, and blood covered the little pieces of clothing that remained on her. The girls face was cold. She continued to walk past Sakura without even acknowledging she was there, her face lost in a world that was no longer real.

Sakura knew she should have stopped there. Just stopped in her tracks and turned around and ran home as fast as she could. But that wasn't her nature; when she set out to do something, she set out to finish it. So when she finally did reach the small corner store in the centre of the village, she spotted a guard asleep behind the counter. He was covered in deep red and bronze armour with a deep gold emblem that she couldn't recognise embedded on the back and chest. Her heart pounded and her body wanted to freeze, but she pushed past it and grabbed the closest loaf of bread she could and started to run. No way was the bread going to feed Sakura's family but it was enough until the next food run... whenever that may be. She ran and ran, the cold air burning her lungs as she breathed it in with panic. It wasn't long before a loud bang was heard and Sakura found herself running no more, and instead falling to the ground with a sharp, excruciating pain tearing through the bottom of her left leg.

That was the last morning Sakura Haruno saw her family.

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><p>Prison was no luxury. Especially when the strangers were in control of it. For three gruelling weeks, Sakura had been sharing a dirty cemented cell with seven other men and one female. The walls leaked with cold, dirty water, causing the walls to grow mossy and mould ridden, the place was almost fully dark with only one window no bigger than a book at the back of the cell providing very little insulation or air, there were no toilet or bed facilities and food rations were extremely scarce. There was barely enough room to move around with it being so crammed with people, and the stench of rotten wood and human wastes made the air reek of a thick must. It was a closed in hell. The living conditions in which some of these innocent prisoners lived were beyond cruel and utterly inhumane.<p>

The men, in which Sakura had the callous opportunity of sharing a cell with, had to be in their forties. They were all large men-much larger than Sakura- who had been locked up months or even years before Sakura was thrown into such a sickening place. Their crimes varied from rape, to theft, to vigorous assault, to murder. The woman, however, was in there with the same pathetic reason Sakura was; driven theft to keep her family alive. She was worried at first, Sakura, about a lot of things. Death, for one. Then the fear of never seeing her family again, of getting abused and assaulted by her inmates, and then of course what was going to happen to her. She was only seventeen; Christ, she was still a kid. And now she had to deal with this because she was trying to survive? None of it was fair. But fair wasn't a familiar word to the 'strangers', and wasn't going to be for a long time to come.

''Eat,'' Kurenai said, picking up the food scraps off of the filthy floor. From what Sakura could make out, they seemed to be some sort of vegetable peeling. It was too dark to make out what type, but that didn't matter; she was in no mood to eat.

"I'm not hungry,"

"Rubbish Sakura." Kurenai grabbed a hold of Sakura's chin and forced her mouth open. She placed the peelings in her mouth and shut it, keeping her hand over Sakura's jaw. "It's been three days since we got our last rations. Savour this while it lasts; you'll never know when these fucking pigs will decide to feed us again."

Kurenai had become like a mother figure to Sakura since her days began in the cell. She was an older woman, ranging somewhere between her fortes and fifties, who like Sakura, was slowly withering away to nothing. Sakura often looked at her and pictured what she may have looked like when she was younger. She could tell she would have been a beautiful woman, her long dark hair and fair complexion was Sakura's idea of beauty. But none of that was anymore; instead she was looking at the weak, bony remains of a woman who had endured it all and was on the verge of giving up.

"And plus, you need to quickly eat what you can before any of the scumbags in this cell decide to take it from you."

"Let them try," Sakura gritted her teeth and forcefully swallowed the rotten remains of food scraps. "I'd like to see how far they'd get."

Kurenai looked at Sakura with a pathetic expression. "Don't act like a hero Sakura, not in here. You of all people know what they're capable of; loud talk won't get you anywhere but beneath their filthy grimy excuses for bodies."

Goosebumps made their paths down Sakura's mud stained skin. The thought of the things they'd do to her in the middle of the night circled like a massive storm cloud inside of her head. Waking up to old men grinding their heinous, sweaty bodies on top of her and knowing there was nothing she, Kurenai or the guards could do to stop them made her feel sick to the stomach, the place between her legs started to ache painfully, and the urge to vomit started to build up inside of her.

"I've heard rumours from the other prisoners that there's going to be some kind of shift movement." Kurenai continued, changing the subject, chewing on an apple core which she found amongst the scraps of food. At first Sakura refused to feed on such vile things, but after a week in the hell hole she soon worked out that she needed to eat whatever the hell she could if she wanted any chance of surviving.

"Shift movement?"

"Yeah. New prisoners are getting shifted to this prison, and some of our prisoners getting transported to other jails across the country. I for one would love to get the hell out of this revolting place before I end up like that woman in cell six."

Sakura shivered at the thought of what happened to the woman in cell six. Like Sakura and Kurenai, she had been repeatedly raped by cell mates and guards for weeks, leaving her bloodied and bruised to the point of death. At last the woman couldn't take it anymore and killed herself by repeatedly slamming her head into the cement wall in her cell, until there was barley any face left to slam.

"Where did you hear this from." Sakura said sternly, now becoming suddenly interested in Kurenai's words.

"Apparently one of the people a few cells down heard the guards speaking. But you can't believe too much of the stuff that's said around here."

"What exactly did they say?"

"I'm not exactly sure, it was something about shifting us away so we could work. You know, slave for them or something. They were doing some shifting, or 'rearranging' as they called it, so they could pick out the fitter ones from the lazy ones." She forced more scraps into her mouth unwillingly. "Then that way, the tough ones are separated from the weak ones and so on."

"How long ago did you hear it?"

"Would've been about two days ago now."

Sakura shifted position, making herself more comfortable against the cold rock wall. All of a sudden forcing as much rotten food scraps into her mouth as possible sounded like a great idea. Puzzled, Kurenai stared down confusingly at the pink haired girl stuffing her face beneath her. "Sakura, what are you doing?" she asked as she scoffed down her scraps. Kurenai couldn't quite wrap her head around it; wasn't this the girl who refused to eat earlier?

Sakura paused from eating her rations and lowered her voice so the men in the cell couldn't hear. "Kurenai, don't you see it? This can be our chance to get out of here! Eating, eating will help us put on weight, weight will make us look healthy and strong, it'll be our escape out of here!''

The determination in Sakura's eyes made Kurenai's heat sink. She had only known this rare, emerald eyed girl for 3 weeks and she was already one of the bravest, strongest people she had ever met. She knew that Sakura was going to get out of there. She had no doubt that if anyone was going to survive whatever the hell this was, it would be Sakura Haruno. Of course, Kurenai knew her own fate was going to end here in the very cell she was sitting in, no matter how much foul food scraps she forced down her throat, or how many men she managed to push off of her during the night, her days were set to end in the prison.

"Here," she said, handing almost a full, perfectly fine apple over to Sakura. "Eat this dear. You'll need it if you're going to get out of here."

"But what about you? You need it too, we're both getting out of here remember? You have it." Sakura handed the apple back over to Kurenai, who only refused it.

"Oh, I've had my fair share for the day. Don't you worry about me. Now eat up."

Sakura nodded, and sank her teeth in what had been the closest thing to luxury since three weeks ago.

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><p>Muffled voices and commands echoed through the cell, followed by a series of jagged footsteps. It was the next morning. Sakura stirred, her tired eyes fluttering open to the sudden noise, and pushed the greasy old man that was resting upon her beaten figure off of her. Her body once again ached. She was confused as to why there was so much noise at that time of the morning but it didn't take her long to figure out the reason.<p>

Her heart jumped. Her eyes shot open. Her mind seemed to suddenly register what was going on; They had started the shift movement!

"Kurenai, Kurenai!" Sakura whispered, shaking her shoulder in an attempt to waken her. "Kurenai, wake up!"

Kurenai rolled her exhausted body to face Sakura and shrug her hand off. But when she too heard the hustling and sounds of movement from the other end of the building, a sickening feeling washed her stomach. Sakura expected her to be excited, expected her to feel something similar to what Sakura was feeling, I mean they were finally getting out of here... The both of them. Right?

Before Sakura had time to tell Kurenai to get up, there were three men standing at the door of her cell. Two of the men were in what seemed to be some kind of military uniform; similar to what the strangers wore, except instead of the deep red uniform it was dark grey, with a deep gold emblem pinned to their chests. Now that she had the opportunity to look closer, she could notice that the emblem was thick and round, with an eagle centred in the middle. She couldn't recognise it from man in the middle made Sakura frown. He was obviously the leader, or some kind of commander or something, the one who seemed to be in authority. But what confused her was that he only looked to be three or four years older than herself. His long, brown hair hung neatly against his back, almost reaching his waist. He wore a white blazer type jacket, with black pants and black leather shoes. His wide, violet eyes scanned Sakura's form; and she couldn't help but shift uncomfortably as he inspected her. If they were only taking stronger ones, she couldn't help but wonder if she would make the cut? She had after all lost a lot of weight since she was first convicted. But she was still strong, still willing to work or slave or whatever it was they were going to make her do, as long as it would get her out of here.

"That one." The man with the violet eyes commanded, nodding in Sakura's direction.

"That one sir? She doesn't look strong enough…" The soldier to the left responded. "What about the men, they still have a considerable amount of weight on them, they look like the more suitable choice."

"Strong they may look, but looking at them now makes me wonder how much they are willing to work. I won't accept any indolent degenerates on this project, soldier, now do as I ordered."

Sakura gazed quickly at the men lying beneath her feet, most sleeping in their own faeces, too lethargic to drag themselves to a position where they were unable to roll around in their own filth. The door to the cell opened, and before Sakura knew it there was a soldier on either arm of her, dragging her forcefully out of the cell."She comes too," Sakura said as she tried to pull them to a halt, nodding at Kurenai. They kept walking. "Hey, did you hear me? She comes too; we're not leaving her here."

"Stop talking." One of the soldiers hissed, continuing to drag her.

"Hey, hey! Stop! Kurenai, get up!" Sakura attempted to pull her arms free. "Kurenai, you need to move! I can't leave you here!"

"You need to go," Kurenai said calmly, so softly that it brought a tear to her own eye. "My time is up Sakura. Yours is only just beginning. You're an amazing girl miss Haruno; it's up to you what happens with yourself. Promise me you won't let them push you around."

"Kurenai!" Sakura yelled franticly, now at the point of tears. She had already left one mother behind, she wasn't going to let it happen again. "This wasn't what was meant to happen; we were meant to get out of here together!"

"She's not going anywhere." The man in white said solemnly. "She's too old, too brittle; she would be useless to us. Leave the dark haired one behind."

As she watched Sakura try and pull herself free from the tight grasp the soldiers had on her, Kurenai smiled softly. "Good luck, Sakura."

That was the last time Sakura Hsaw that woman.

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><p>They led her to a truck, one they most probably used for transporting cattle, as there was quite a lot of space inside and it smelt of manure. It was raining outside so the hay which had covered the floor was becoming damp and making her raw skin itch. She glanced around at all the other people sitting against the truck walls; they were mostly males, and surprisingly looked in good condition. There were some females, mostly older ones though, families with tiny children, and a select few which surprisingly looked her age. As they threw her in with an unsympathetic force, all eyes turned to her.<p>

She walked down the centre of the now silent truck looking for a spare space against the wall. All types of eyes watched her, making her feel intimidated for the first time in her life. In the back of her head she knew that all of these poor, mistreated people, had also felt what she was feeling at that moment, the nervousness, the fear, the feeling of utter confusion, all the emotions would be more than familiar to them.

"Mmm, fresh meat." One man grumbled sleazily, keeping his deep black eyes focussed on the Pink haired girl before him. A sickly grin crawled upon his face.

Sakura felt like vomiting. Her heart started to race as her idea of freedom seemed to be turning into a familiar image she used to experience in the cell.

"I call first go, you can all have your turn after I'm done," Said another.

"Give it up Rakon," said a scruffy brown haired boy from the back of the truck. He looked a little bit older than Sakura, although younger than the other men. But for some reason there was something in this boys voice, something that intimidated the others. Sakura stopped. 'You won't go near her, or else."

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><p><strong>AN: So, what do you think? A little slow, but it's only the first chapter. Those who wanna see a bit of Kiba in action should stick around, he's not far off as you can see ;) **

**R&R! x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter number two! Thank you to all that have reviewed so far, it means a lot! Especially yours, TheRealWorldHurts! You guys are great, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**I don't own Naruto either.**

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><p>"<em>Give it up Rakon," said a scruffy brown haired boy from the back of the bus. Sakura stopped. 'You won't go near her, or else."<em>

"Oh yeah?" Rakon scoffed. His large, heavy figure was enough to make Sakura shy away as he spoke. It was also enough for Sakura to wonder about why this boy was speaking up to him? He was nowhere near as big as the overweight skinhead who was starting to become aggravated. The brown haired boy lifted his head. It was dark, but Sakura managed to make out most of his facial and bodily features. The first thing she noticed was that he was handsome; his messy, deep brown hair, Dark chocolate brown eyes, and tanned complexion made him look to be a little _too_ sexy to be a convict.

He was tall but far from lanky. There was a rip in his muddy black t-shirt, which allowed Sakura to see that he had muscles. _Boy, he had muscles_. Hell, he was far from looking like a body builder, but judging by the abbs which appeared on his tanned stomach and his strong arms, Sakura worked out that he'd have to have come from a place of hard physical labour to have a physique like that. And most distinguishable of all, was the two red upside-down triangle markings on his cheeks. Religious markings maybe? A type of tattoo? She had seen people in Konoha get tattoo's to prove that they belonged to some kind of cult, or some got tattoo's to represent their religion, but the two, deep red markings on either side of his cheeks was a symbol Sakura had never seen before.

The boy glared back at the large man Sakura now knew as Rakon. "Yeah, you heard me. Try and touch another one of these women and you're dead."

"Are you kidding, boy?" Rakon looked at his assemblage of men behind him and burst into laughter. "You're just a kid, a puny punk like you can't hold me back from doing whatever the hell I want."

Rakon continued to laugh until one man from the posse behind him placed a hand on his shoulder. "Rakon, don't underestimate the boy," he said gruffly. "He may not be as big as us, but he's quick. I saw him have it out with one of the prisoners we left behind, he's defiantly no pushover."

"Bullshit," Rakon argued, his anger building in result of the other man's doubt. "I could squash this kid like a bug."

Sakura's heart started to race. What had she started? This was not her definition of escape, or of any chance of freedom, in fact she was now starting to think that she had left one hell hole only to be thrown into another, only deeper.

"I'd listen carefully to your friend Rakon, it would be a shame for you to go and do something stupid now."

"Shut up, you little punk!" Rakon charged in the boy's direction, knocking Sakura to the ground as he sprinted with rage to the back of the truck. He picked up the boy by the collar of his ripped shirt, and hefted him up so he was standing. Their faces were dauntingly close, the larger man breathing heavy with anger. "What are you going to do now, boy? All I have to do is clench my fist and swing, and you'll be down and out for a week."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up Rakon," the boy grinned. "As your buddy over there said before, I'm no push over."

The truck jolted to a start, and the wheels started to turn causing the vehicle to start moving. The grip Rakon had on the boy shifted as he stumbled at the jolt of the truck. The boy slid from beneath his hands and took a step back, hoping to escape the larger man's grip. "Why you, come here you little punk, you're not getting away that easy!" Rakon stiffened his fist and without thinking sent it hurling in the dark haired boys direction.

Sakura's heart jumped in a sudden burst of fear. "Look out!" she screamed, trying to hide the shakiness in her voice. She was worried; she would never forgive herself if this boy got seriously injured, or even worse, _killed _because he was trying to defend her. For starters, he didn't even know her? She didn't want to be involved in any of it, hence why she was keeping her mouth shut and staying quiet. She didn't need to make any enemies this early into the shift movement, or at all for that matter.

But the boy didn't need a warning. As the fist pushed through the air and made its way toward him, he dodged to the left, and caught the fist in the palm of his right hand. He gripped it hard, causing Rakon's face to curl into an expression of sheer pain. "What was that Rakon? I didn't quite catch ya," the boy tightened his grip even more, causing Rakon to fall to his knees. "Wanna repeat what you said earlier? Something about squashing me like a bug?"

Rakon howled in agony, the bones in his knuckles and wrists slowly crushing beneath the smaller males grip. "Let… let g-go!"

"What was that? I can't hear ya over the cracking in your wrist, gonna have to speak up."

"Let go!" Rakon bellowed, sending shivers of fright down all the prisoners' backs. Sakura half expected the group of men who stood behind Rakon to all jump in and assist him, to rip the boy off of him and throw him to the ground, but they all stood frozen in fear.

The guy with the red markings leaned closer, grabbing the neck of Rakon's shirt now, once again staring eye to eye. "As I said before, you won't go touching any of these women. Especially that one."

Sakura could hear him whispering but couldn't make out what they were saying, but figured what the boy was saying must have been about her as Rakon wearily looked in her direction. He nodded, and the grip on his shirt released. "Good. Nice to see we've decided on an agreement, huh Rakon?"

Rakon gritted his teeth so hard Sakura could see the strain in his jaw. He glared up at the boy, still shamelessly kneeling at his feet, and nodded unwillingly. The boy tapped him sarcastically on the shoulder and started making his way back over to his spot at the back of the bus, where Sakura was _also_ sitting.

It was awkwardly silent. He just walked back over and sat down like nothing happened, folded his arms, and let his head hang slightly into his chest as if he was getting some shut eye. Sakura watched him, amazed but somewhat angered at him as well. He seemed very smug with what happened; almost as if he was showing off or something. Did he think she was weak? Or that she was some helpless little girl that couldn't look after herself? If that was the case, she wasn't pleased with it. She could look after herself. Heck, she practically raised herself along with six little brothers and sisters. Or maybe she was mad because he had failed to acknowledge she was even sitting there? She felt stupid for craving some kind of attention from him at a time like that. But there was something about him, something that made her _want_ him to approach her.

"I could have handled him myself." She said bluntly, folding her arms and breaking the silence but refusing to look at him. He raised his eye brows, smirking a cheeky grin.

"Aw, not even a thank you?"

"You didn't have to but in like that. I can look after myself, you know."

The boy shifted, intrigued by Sakura's determined actions. "That man is no walk in the park, you know that, right?"

"I'm tougher than I look." She stated, sounding almost desperate. "I don't need you to be fathering me."

The boy stared long and hard at Sakura, wondering what type of girl he would be dealing with here. She was feisty, he had worked out, and one he had made sure not to underestimate for a second time. "What's your name?"

Sakura hesitated for a bit. She was looking at him now, probably a little _too _much as she saw his mouth curl up on one side to show a cocky little grin. "Sakura."

"Well, Sakura. The next time one of these men, who might I add are twice the size of you, have the minds of psychopathic rapists, and a history of murders try to start on you, I'll let you have full control over the situation. Cause you're a big girl, right? You can look after yourself, huh?"

Sakura frowned, but at the same time smiled at his sarcastic instruction. "Good."

"Good." He replied, offering out his hand. She gladly shook it, gripping it tightly as she tried to let him know that she had a bit of power behind those tiny, fragile hands. "I'm Kiba, by the way. Just in case you ever need a little help, but I'm sure you won't, ya know, because you can look after yourself."

He winked and smirked once more before re positioning himself back against the wall. Sakura didn't know what to say, she wasn't mad, but somewhat interested in this boy. "You know what you remind me of, Sakura?" he asked, breaking the short silence.

"What?"

"Fire. Pretty to look at, but not something to be tampered with."

She smiled in agreement. His cocky attitude left her wanting to argue with him, not seriously, of course, but to the point where she'd prove him wrong and laugh about it. It was the first time she had felt like being happy, or cheeky, since she was stripped away from her family.

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><p>A jerking stop caused Sakura's eyes to flutter open. She tried to recognise and piece together where she was again, and then it started coming back to her. She was stripped away from her family and put in a prison cell. From there, she was stripped away from the cell and thrown into the back of a stinking, itchy, leaking truck. Her head was lying on something firm, but at the same time soft. She frowned. When her blurry vision started to clear she realised her head was lying on a shoulder. <em>Kiba's<em> shoulder. She whipped her head up quickly, hoping that Kiba didn't realise she had fallen asleep on him, but it was too late. He was smirking at her, a goofy grin cemented on his face. She couldn't believe she had just fallen asleep on a boy she had known for 3 hours. Stupid, stupid Sakura.

"Well well well, look who's finally awake." He smirked, gently rotating his numb shoulder. "I was going to wake you earlier, because I didn't want to get in trouble for you using my shoulder when I knew you didn't need one, because you're 'tougher than you look'. But you just looked so comfortable, so I let it slide."

She gritted her teeth at the way he quoted her but still managed to find the humour in his words. She was sure her face had turned a pale pink from embarrassment and tried to hide it behind her palms as she rubbed her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that flushed looking face of yours is just from the heat." He winked, before standing up.

Again Sakura couldn't think of a quick witted response, much to her annoyance. But that wasn't really important now, as she watched all of the people around the inside walls of the truck start to stand. "What's everyone doing?"

"Stand up," he instructed her, heaving her up gently from the ground. "This is our last stop. When the truck halts, they come in and restrain us. Y'know, so we can't escape. Don't try to run, because you won't get anywhere. You're guaranteed to come face to face with about thirty armed guards if you try and escape this truck."

His words were heavy with knowledge; by the sounds of things, he had been doing this kind of thing for a while now. He knew exactly what the routines and protocols were and abided by them to avoid any kind of unnecessary conflict. And sure enough, as he finished speaking his words, the door to the truck swung open.

"Alright, against the walls scum!"" one guard hollered. Three of them walked in with numerous sets of heavy shackles and started to attach them to everyone's wrists and ankles. Sakura reluctantly held out her wrists, as one guard strapped the heavy cuts of iron onto her already sore skin. A familiar shot of pain tore through her left leg as he fiddled about with the shackles around her ankles, and she clenched her eyes shut. Once the pain began to subside she opened them to find the guard smirking at her. "You look almost too pretty to be in here, little girl."

She gritted her teeth and stared daggers at him. She could also see Kiba glaring at him from the corner of her eye.

The guard stroked a hand down the side of Sakura's arm. "But, if I were to have you, the commodore wouldn't be very happy with me now would he."

_The commodore wouldn't be happy?_ Sakura shook his arms off. "Don't touch me, pig."

He smirked again, clenching her wrist. ''That'll be enough of that, dear, now get moving." With a strong shove, Sakura and the others started making their way towards the opening of the truck as the guards shouted out orders. "Keep moving along, quicker, don't try any funny business!"

The guards acted like the prisoners were a herd of cattle heading to the slaughter. And although the way they were being herded was cruel and cold-hearted, Sakura had never been happier to smell fresh air in her life.

She soon refocussed her mind from the fresh air and onto the massively large figure floating on the water behind her. On the _ocean _behind her.

No. No, they couldn't be shipping them away, over… over the sea! Her heart pushed into overdrive as she quickly looked in Kiba's direction, who also seemed to be staring up at the ship. He swallowed; the expression on his face not happy with what he saw before him. He looked scared, mixed in with sadness, nervousness, and most of all, realisation. Realisation that whatever 'project' they were meant to be involved in meant that they had to voyage across the sea, to unknown lands.

Sakura was not going to be shipped to another country. She would do everything in her power to stop herself from leaving, even if that meant attempting to escape. Again she looked over at Kiba who returned the stare, and his face drained as he could almost predict what was about to happen next.

"Sakura, Don't!"

She lifted her elbows and sent them flying back into the guts of the guard behind her. He fell to his knees and gasped for air as her blow winded him and she made her escape. The shackles on her ankles were heavy and restrained her from taking big steps to run faster, but that didn't matter; she was only petite, and she didn't need to take big steps as her stride was little anyway. A whistle blew in the distance as she dodged a heap of prisoners that were standing behind her. Guards and soldiers started to shout, but she couldn't make out what they were saying as she was too focused on running as far as her feet could take her.

Little did she know she wasn't going to get far. She neared the truck which she had arrived in, the door at the back still open from where the prisoners had exited. She kept running, the shackles weighing down on her ankles and wrists, and before she knew it the blunt end of a rifle came out of nowhere, a soldier attached to the other end, sending it straight for her temple.

It all happened to fast for her to react, and the next minute, everything was black.

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, it's short, but a little suspenseful yes? ;) But the next one will be longer, I promise! Please review, would love to know what you think so far!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

A churning, motion sickness feeling filled Sakura's stomach. The floor beneath her felt as if it was rocking slowly back and forth, then up and down. It all felt like slow motion; her head was dizzy enough from the rifle hit to the head, and whatever the floating motion was wasn't making her feel any better.

"Where…. Where am I?" she said drowsily, attempting to lift her head. It felt like it weighed a ton.

"Shh, just relax." A familiar voice said from beside her. Sakura looked to the side to see Kiba kneeling next to her, rinsing a damp cloth in his hands. He patted it gently over her head in an attempt to clean off the dirt and dry blood from the side of her face. He also tried to wash away the sweat which was brought on by her current sea sickness.

"Don't…" she slurred, attempting to push away his hand. But she was still so dizzy therefore rendering her unable to focus on his hand to remove it.

"Sakura, just stop resisting, for five minutes. I'm trying to help you. I get that you think you're the toughest person in the world, but even the toughest of people need help from others sometimes."

She couldn't find the strength to argue. She felt like she was going to hurl up all the scraps she had forced into her throat the night before. Her face was utterly drained of any colour she once had and she couldn't even keep her eyes open. "Why…" she began breathing heavily. "Why did you let them get me,"

"Sakura, there wasn't anything I could do." Kiba rinsed the cloth again. "I told you not to go and be a hero by escaping, and you ignored me. And as a result, you've got a mild concussion and a bad case of sea sickness."

"But I don't wanna leave my home…" she continued to slur.

"No one does Sakura, but we don't have a choice."

She wanted to cry, but not because her head was aching and her stomach felt like every liquid within her was twisting and winding together like a whirlpool, but because of the fact she was on a voyage where she would never be able to return home. Would she ever see her parents again? Or her little brothers and sisters? Would she ever be able to return to her house or even back to her hometown again? If she had the chance to go back to the moment where the guards stripped her away from her jail cell, she would do everything in her power to stay. She would put up with the beatings, with the countless accounts of rape, with the rotten excuses for food, all if it meant that someday she might be released and be able to return to her family. But that chance was gone now.

* * *

><p>Hours passed, then a day, and then another. After two days of the same rocking and repeating motion, Sakura's sea sickness was starting to ease. Her body was slowly adjusting to the constant swaying movement, and even when she did feel sick or uneasy, she had Kiba there. He would take her mind off most things by asking about her family, or about her story, even simple things like her favourite things to do, all so she could focus her mind on something else to put her stomach at ease. He was good like that; even though at times he was cocky and just as stubborn as Sakura, he had a warm heart.<p>

She sat with Kiba against the wooden walls of the ship feeling the wave's crash upon it from the outside. The floor beneath them was damp; small leaks were visible along many of the ships walls. What made the matter worse was that Sakura, along with Kiba and all the other prisoners, were all cooped up and forced to reside in the hull of the boat where the leaking was worse than any other area, as the soldiers and guards helped themselves to endless amounts of food and warm blankets on the upper deck.

Not only did the leaking make everything around them damp, it also made the temperature drop. The air around them was freezing despite everyone being cooped up in such a small area. Sakura's body shook, goose bumps reaching the surface of her skin making it feel like sandpaper. Kiba looked at her and the way she sat with her knees to her chest, her arms folded tightly against her stomach and her eyes clenched shut. She was obviously cold from the way she was violently shaking and the skimpy, torn and dirty clothes she wore weren't helping her situation either. Something in his gut made him uncomfortable seeing her like that. He grabbed the bottom of his shirt where a long strip from the bottom to his chest was already present. He grabbed at it and tore, his shirt splitting in half. He pulled it off and opened it up so it doubled in width and placed it over Sakura's shaking body. She grabbed at it almost immediately, pulling it tight against herself and remaining to clench her eyes shut. "Why…" she said, her jaw tense from shaking so much. Why d-do you always help m-me?"

Kiba sighed, hoping she wouldn't go into the whole 'she's tougher than she looks' act. "Why can't you just accept the fact that I want to help you?"

"B-because usually no one h-h-helps me." She was so cold she couldn't pronounce her words properly, even with Kiba's shirt over her as a blanket. He frowned.

"Can I ask why no one has helped you, Sakura?"

"B-because I n-need to be able t-to l-look after m-myself, that's what m-mum always said,"

Kiba felt a wave of guilt. No child should be told they have to look after themselves all their life? Sure, you have to eventually, but as a child? Kiba believed that as a child you should always have someone there to look after you. After all, that's what parenting is? Not leaving your kid to defend for herself all her life. "No offence Sakura, but your mum sounds like a jerk. Everyone deserves to have someone help and look after them at some point."

"W-why is i-i-it so cold?" She had changed the conversation, not intentionally, and it was then that Kiba noticed she was becoming slightly delirious. He was currently shirtless, and it was chilly, but nowhere near as cold as it should be to make her act like that. He noticed the light layer of perspiration re appear on her forehead, and her face drain of its colour. She started to toss around violently, murmuring stuff he couldn't quite understand.

"Sakura," he said, trying to hold her still. She appeared somewhat delusional; speaking nonsense and her eyes slightly rolling back into her head. Was it sea sickness again? No, it couldn't be. Sea sickness wasn't _this_ bad. She started crying out in pain and Kiba started to panic as her body continued to shake. What the hell was going on?

"Sakura!" He yelled, holding her face in his hands in an attempt to help her focus on him. "Where's the pain, I need you to tell me so I can help you!"

She couldn't do anything but let out a cry of agony. And that's when he noticed it; the horribly infected wound on her left leg. It appeared to be some kind of… bullet wound? His eyes widened in realisation. "They fucking shot you!" Kiba's eyes went directly to the wound which had been re-opened and was bleeding terribly. It was horribly red and seriously infected; the scab which had tried to heal over the top of it had been ripped or rubbed off because of the shackles. How long ago had this happened?

"Fuck… she's going into shock, someone grab a guard!" Kiba yelled at the surrounding prisoners. "Well, don't just stand there! Get a fucking guard, now!"

One woman ran over to the small staircases that lead from the hull and onto the deck. The entrance was blocked with bars, so she started to bang on them in an attempt to get the guards attention. Meanwhile Kiba searched franticly for a bit of material to wrap Sakura's leg in. He needed to apply pressure on it right away before she lost any more blood and her condition got worse. Her body was going into shock from the blood loss, making him realise that the wound was in worse condition than he imagined. He thought about using the damp cloth that he was using on her face from earlier, but refused to. The water was to dirty and muddy; it would have only caused the infection to become worse. He ripped a sleeve off of his already torn shirt and wrapped it tightly across the bullet wound, restricting the blood from escaping. Sakura continued to breathe and pant heavily as her skin turned icy cold. "Sakura, hey, stay with me, look at me!" he said as he gently tapped her face. "They've gone to get help, just hang in there until they arrive okay?"

And then once again, as if it had become a daily custom to her, everything around her started to fade out into black.

* * *

><p>She awoke on something soft. On something surprisingly warm. Whatever was beneath her felt clean, it felt comfortable, it actually felt <em>humane<em>. Could it be sheets? She let her fingers trace the lining of fabric beneath her, carefully caressing the soft material that felt like something so close to bliss. It was obvious that she was in a bed, but the only question that kept popping up in her head was whose bed? They certainly did not have this type of luxury or anything moderately _close_ down in the hull.

She slowly lifted herself up, her head and leg still aching but feeling a lot better than it did before. Then something else registered; her clothes. They were definitely not hers. She looked at the beautiful night gown that covered her now sparkling clean body and frowned in confusion. What was going on? Where the hell was she? The last and only thing she could remember was being trapped beneath the boat deck with Kiba, freezing and almost bleeding to death as everything started to blur out around her. She lifted herself up out of bed and wearily wondered to the window before peeking out of it. It was morning, and unfortunately, she was still on the boat. Blunt mounds of rolling waves stretched out alongside the never ending paddock of sea for miles.

She looked at the room surrounding her with curious eyes. Everything was so clean; there was no foul smell, no sight of dirt or even an inch of mud, no signs of rotting food scraps, not a single cockroach, leaking wall or disease infested rat; nothing.

Instead, portraits of large ships, expensive looking ornaments and maps of the world covered the walls. Mapped out plans of the sea and the ships path lay in pages across the small writing desk in the corner of the room. Her inquisitive hands flipped through books and diaries, photos and contracts that lied mysteriously on the desk before her, as her mind tried to take in every little bit of information she could find. It was then her eyes stumbled upon a pile of white sheets of paper stapled together labelled 'Project'.

She rested her hand upon the top. Would this have all the information about where they were going? Would it tell her about what they were going to do with all these prisoners? Her mind burned with anticipation, the urge to read it was overcoming her body. But as her fingers nervously started to grasp a hold of the first sheet, a startling voice appeared from behind her.

"You're not meant to be reading those."

Sakura jumped and quickly removed her hand from the desk. She spun around to see the violet eyed man standing in the frame of the door, his hand behind his back and staring at Sakura intently. "Good to see that you've awaken."

Sakura nodded, not exactly sure if she should speak to the man. After all, he was the one who had captured and transported them all. But on the other hand it appeared he had taken her in and given her new clothes and bandages for her leg. How was she to trust or even talk to this man if he was the enemy? He walked over to the desk where Sakura was standing and slowly slid the 'Project' plans underneath a pile of other papers. He continued to walk past her and stand at his window, glancing out at the sea which surrounded the boat for miles. "So, I hear you're Sakura?"

"Y-yes." She stuttered. At first she hesitated to reply but new if she wanted to get information regarding this whole 'Project' scheme, talking to him might be the better option.

The violet eyed man still didn't look at her. "Sakura... pretty name, that. Comes from the Japanese origin meaning Cherry blossom." _I know what my name means, jerk._ "Well, Sakura, I've been told you've caused a lot of commotion since leaving the prisoner base at Konoha."

Prisoner base? That's what he called it? To her it seemed more like a fucking hell whole. She bit her tongue. She could have said a lot of things, like how badly the soldiers treated them, or how many times the guards and inmates would repeatedly rape the woman, or how they only fed the prisoners rotting scraps three times a week (if they were lucky). But instead she kept her mouth shut, keeping in mind that she had to play the 'good' girl if she wanted to solve whatever was happening.

"First there was your resistance towards the shift movement, then the instigator of an argument aboard the transportation truck, then an attempted escape back on land, and now what was a serious case of shock brought on by blood loss. Some guards have even labelled you as a degenerate."

"Please keep in mind, _commodore_, that if I was such a degenerate you wouldn't have cleaned and clothed me like you did just now." Sakura folded her arms, hoping that maybe she would get a proper explanation as to why he had taken her in like this.

"That's correct. Because unlike the guards, I see the positives in you, Sakura."

"Positives?"

He turned to face her with his hands behind his back. "Although they might see you as a type of burden to this project, I see you as a necessity. You're strong, I like strong. Strong people prevail, and in the end, it's the strong ones who will survive this."

Sakura smiled. It was like music to her ears, to hear someone say she was strong. It was the image she had been trying to portray ever since she was taken prisoner, and now that someone had finally realised it made her feel all the more stronger.

She swallowed and decided to say something a little bold. "What exactly is this 'project' that everyone keeps speaking of?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that information." He strolled over to the large map of the world which hung on the cabin wall.

"Well can you at least tell me one thing?" Sakura asked, walking over hesitantly to where the man with long brown hair was standing. "Why… did you help me?"

"Because," he turned to her. "You remind me of someone I know."

"Who?"

"My wife."

An awkward silence filled the room. Her eyes shifted from him to the ground as she bit her bottom lip awkwardly. His wife? Great, maybe the person she partly claimed to be her 'rescuer' was actually some freak who was obsessed with slavery and the fact Sakura was oh so similar to his wife. And now she was stuck in his cabin, in clothes that most likely belonged to his wife, with still no idea what was going on. Oh, what fantastic luck she had.

She shifted uncomfortably, which the commodore quickly picked up on. "I didn't mean for that to make you uncomfortable Sakura. What I'm trying to say is you both have very similar qualities; both very strong willed, determined, and beautiful."

She couldn't help but smile at his compliments. Although they were slightly forward she didn't mind it; after spending the past three months copping nothing but physical and verbal abuse, a few simple compliments wouldn't have did her any harm. "Thanks," she smiled warmly.

"You're probably wondering as to why you're in this cabin, right?" he asked with a hint of warmness in his voice. He actually sounded like a pretty nice guy if you put the whole 'using innocent people as slaves' thing to the side.

Sakura looked down at the white lacy dress she was wearing and at the room surrounding her. "Yeah, actually…"

"Please note that it's completely up to you if you want to leave. But with a leg as infected as that, it's best you be in the care of one of our nurses, or me. That way we can keep an eye on it to avoid a more serious case of infection."

"Well commodore, as much as I would appreciate that, it wouldn't be very fair on the other prisoners, would it." She thought about the families and children that were down in the hull, all cold and starving just as she was. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if anything serious happened to them whilst the captain of the ships attention was being focussed on her.

He held his head high with authority and again didn't bother to look at her. "Also keep in mind that I can't help _everyone_, Sakura."

She wanted to take up his offer _bad_. She would do anything to get out of there, and to have proper care, but she couldn't just abandon everyone. Not the families, not the children, not Kiba…

_Kiba_.

She had forgotten all about him. How the hell had he not crossed her mind within the past hour? She needed to see him, and she needed to see him quick. She needed to tell him about his offer, about what things he had said, so maybe Kiba could glue together the pieces of this giant puzzle.

"Excuse me, Commodore?"

"Yes Sakura?"

She swallowed. "Would you mind if I quickly collect some of my belongings from down in the hull? I promise I won't be long."

"If you wish. I'll most likely be here when you return, so just make yourself at home." He said as he sat down at his desk, fiddling with papers.

She spun around immediately and headed towards the door_. I need to find Kiba, now._


	4. Chapter 4

She fleeted to the deck in search of Kiba, the morning sun piercing her eyes as she sprinted out on to the surface. All the prisoners were hard at work scrubbing the deck and fiddling with the sails as the surrounding guards supervised. The guards and soldiers looked at her, and Sakura half expected that they'd grab a hold of her and force her to work also, but much to her surprise they didn't. There was a few sly nudges with the elbow and nods at her direction, but no one touched or even spoke to her. Had the Commodore warned them not to go near her? Or did they just think she was someone else? After all, she did look like a completely different person once she was cleaned and clothed properly. But then again there weren't many people on board, or any _at all_ for that matter, who had a head of bright pink hair like she did.

When the soldiers went back to observing the prisoners instead of Sakura, she began to make her way across deck. Her heart sank at the stares she was receiving off the woman and children; their desperate faces pleading out for help and answers. But sadly Sakura couldn't offer any of that. She had no way of helping them, _saving_ them, she didn't know how. She couldn't answer their questions because she didn't even know the answers to her own. All she could do was walk by and drop her eye contact, due to the immense guilt that was caving in her chest; guilt casted upon her by the commodores favouritism.

The male prisoner's stares were different. They were violent, they were nasty, they were ones of raw, blood thirsty jealousy. "Well if it isn't the commodores little pet," one man said as he carted crates of cargo to the side of the deck.

"How many time's did you have to fuck him to earn yourself a pretty little dress like that?" said another very familiar voice. Rakon leaned against the edge of a railing with his ever present posse gathered behind him. "Come on princess, how many times? Three, four?"

She dropped her head and quickened her pace, in hope that she would walk straight past him without any further hassle. Unfortunately that wasn't the case as she was stopped by a colossal grip grabbing her upper arm.

"Why walk so fast? Thought you'd take your time, y'know, get a kick out of watching us slave away while you stand around and look pretty."

"Let go of me Rakon, or else."

"Or else what? Your lover boy isn't here to defend you this time, is he?" Rakon's eyes widened in realisation, his calloused hands still gripped firmly around her skin. "Oh, wait… come to think of it, what does lover boy think of you fucking the Commodore?"

"There's nothing going on with either of them! Now let go of me, _now_."

Rakon's friends began tapping him on the shoulder, causing him to notice the soldiers on the side eyeing him off closely. He snarled and focussed his gaze back on Sakura before letting her go with a slight push. "Looks like you got everyone on this boat looking out for you, hey princess?" His voice deepened as he leaned closer. "You may have the Commodore, the guards, the soldiers and even that little Inuzuka punk carefully watching over you, but just remember princess, every one sleeps eventually. And when they do, you better watch that pretty little back of yours." He snarled before turning his back to her and walking away.

Sakura's gut turned as she watched Rakon and his gang leave and resume to their jobs. He wouldn't really try to hurt her would he? None of this was her fault, so why was he blaming her?

It was yet another unanswered question she attempted to push to the back of her mind. She could worry about that later, for now she needed to find Kiba. She continued to walk with her eyes scanning the deck for the dark haired teen. The persistent burn on her skin caused by the loathing glares surrounding her made her heart ache. They envied the fact Sakura was clean and getting fed properly, they envied that now she had proper bedding and warmth, but most of all they envied the fact that she was _surviving_.

_I know you all might hate me now, but I'm going to do everything I can to help you. I promise._

Her emerald eyes lit up once they caught sight of Kiba stacking cargo. He wasn't wearing a shirt, probably due to the fact he had destroyed it to keep her warm, but he didn't need it on a day like this anyway. The sun was shining down upon the ship with an enormous amount of heat. It was the nights she was worried about. Those long, cold, aching nights down in the hull.

"Kiba!" she called, her long white dress flowing behind her as she ran to where he was standing. She tried her hardest to dodge the workers and prisoners standing in her way. His head shot up at the sound of her voice as he caught sight of her running quickly towards him.

"Sakura, you're okay!" he replied as he embraced her, sighing in relief. "Where have you been, what did they do to you? Shit I have so many questions-

"Kiba," she said, cutting him off. "I'm fine. They just fixed me up, that's all. They're not hurting me or anything,"

"They were humane enough to do that?" he grunted. He folded his arms as he thought back to the way the guards and soldiers were treating everyone.

"Yeah, believe it or not…"

There was a bit of a silence as the two trapped themselves in thought, but it was broken when he looked at her with a questioning look, one eyebrow raised as he eyed her up and down. "What are you wearing?"

"Oh, this? I don't know, it's some dress he gave me. I woke up with it on."

"You look funny."

"Well gee, thanks a lot."

Kiba laughed and leant against the side of the boat. "I'm sorry, it's just… you look like a _girl_."

"Maybe because I am a girl!" she said as she lightly punched him in the arm.

"Sorry, it's just you act like you're the strongest person in the world. I thought that somewhere amidst that badass attitude of yours was a little boy,"

"Kiba!" she went to punch him again, but this time he dodged it and laughed. She couldn't help but giggle herself, but she knew that deep down, this wasn't the time to be acting like little children. "Seriously though, I have some stuff to tell you."

His mischievous smirk faded into a serious, solemn expression. He knew also that this wasn't the time or place to be carrying on like flirting twelve year olds. "Tell me everything you know."

"I don't know much, because the Commodore is pretty firm with the information he gives. I tried to ask him about the project, to try and get some answers, but he wouldn't budge. He just kept saying something about only the strong people surviving, or something like that. All the other stuff he said was pretty useless."

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "What other stuff did he say? Any information is good information Sakura."

"Uhh, well…" she shifted awkwardly, focussing her gaze out to sea. "He said that I reminded him of his wife."

"His wife?" Kiba said as he tried to hold back his laugh. "Looks like the Commodore might have a little crush on you Sakura."

"Looks a bit that way." Sakura leaned against the side of the boat, resting her head in her hands as she sighed. She glanced down at the long drop between the boat and the water as she thought strongly about her situation. How was she going to get herself out of this? Or better yet, did she even want to get out of this?

Kiba stood beside her, and like Sakura, thought hard. "Well while you were discussing your future with the Commodore, I've gathered up a bit of info too."

"Hey, we didn't discuss anything about the 'future.' Don't go saying stupid stuff like that, nothing's going on."

"Relax Sakura, I was joking. Loosen up a little. Anyway, as I was saying, I overheard the guards saying some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" she said as she looked up at him.

"Well wherever we're going, we're not going to straight away. They said we needed to make a few stops first to pick up more prisoners." Kiba ran his hands through his hair, sighing in frustration. "More people is the last thing we need. It's crowded and cramped enough already down in the hull. Not to mention there's barely enough food rations to support the prisoners we already have."

"You're right… at this rate, we're all going to slowly die before we even get to this place."

Kiba sighed again. "It's not looking good Sakura."

"What makes you say that?"

"One of the children died this morning. A little boy. From what I heard it was starvation, but it could have been a lot of other things, other things caused by these stupid fucking soldiers and guards." Sakura noticed the frustration and anger in his voice, the raw resentment and confusion almost visible as it itched away at his skin. "And what made it worse, is that they just tossed the body overboard. Like it was an animal. There was no burial, no ceremony, hell I don't even know if the parents even got to say goodbye. How could they do that? How could they bring themselves to do something so fucking cruel and cold-hearted? It doesn't make any fucking sense... it's not people we're dealing with here, Sakura. It's _animals_."

She rested her hand upon his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. The more he spoke, the more worked up he was getting, and Sakura figured that being angry was the last thing he needed. It wasn't really a good idea when he was on board with fifty other soldiers and guards, and a group of large men who were out to get him.

That's when she remembered her incident with Rakon, and although she knew that she was safe for the time being, she worried for Kiba. If at this present time Rakon and his posse wanted to hurt Sakura in anyway, the closest way to do that would be through Kiba, the only person she had friended on the ship. "Kiba, you need to calm down. I don't want you getting angry and doing something stupid; I don't need or want you getting hurt."

"It's bound to happen sooner or later Sakura. I have enemies on this ship; every passing second is just a second closer to being confronted or jumped. If not by Rakon and his gang, then by a soldier or guard."

"But I don't want that happening!" she yelled at him, frowning at the fact he would say something like that. It came across as him giving in, becoming weak. "Listen, maybe I should tell the Commodore that I don't want to stay in the cabin. Maybe the whole thing is a bad idea, maybe I should be down in the hull with you-

"No!" Kiba faced her, his face serious. "No. You need to be there, you need to make sure your leg is fixed and find out more information. I don't want you worrying about me, I'll be fine. Now promise me you'll stay there with him, okay?"

"But I don't want you getting hurt…" she said as she turned her face away from him. The thought of her losing another person she was close too made her heart ache.

"I won't get hurt Sakura, I can look after myself. You of all people should know what it's like to be underestimated."

"But Rakon and his friends... There is about eight of them, if they all decide to attack you you'll have no chance-"

"Stop thinking like that." He placed two hands on her shoulders and made her look at him. "Just keep doing what you're doing. I promise that the next time you come to see me, I'll still be here."

"I'll come and visit you every morning, I promise I'll bring food and blankets and clean water and anything you need,"

"Sakura," he laughed, putting a hand over her mouth. "All you need to do is find out information about what the hell this voyage is about. I'll be fine, okay?"

She nodded, still not fully convinced, but convinced enough to let the conversation slide. After all, Kiba was quite capable of looking after himself. He had held his own against Rakon before, so there was no saying he couldn't do it again.

"Just remember, make sure you take note of where everything is; where he puts the keys, food, maps, plans of any kind- take a mental image. The more you remember, the easier it'll be to find out information when he's asleep." Sakura nodded. "Good. I know you can do this, Sakura. You're strong. Now you should probably go, the guards are getting suspicious."

Kiba nodded to where a group of guards had gathered, looking in the direction in which Kiba and Sakura stood. Their eyes carefully watched every move the two teens made, warily keeping an eye out for any suspicious movements or actions. "I'd give you a hug, but it's probably not the time with all those pigs watching over us."

"Aw, don't go getting all soft on me now Kiba," Sakura said with a wink. She smirked cheekily before turning away from him and walking back across deck, passing the crowded group of guards as she did so.

He smiled at the way she left on an insult, the familiar smug and self-confident side that she had when he first met her slowly returning. Although he had reassured her that everything would be alright he knew that what he said was a lie. His situation with Rakon was getting worse with each passing day, but he didn't want her worrying about his wellbeing. She had enough things troubling her without him adding on an extra burden. As long as she had a set task and knew what she had to do, he had no doubts that she would be fine. He meant every word when he said she was strong; she was one of the most determined girls he had ever met, but he just didn't like to tell her often because he liked to keep her wanting to prove her point.

"You can do this, Sakura."

* * *

><p>"You're back," The violet eyed man said as Sakura entered quietly through the door. Her head was still swarmed with thoughts of Kiba and the things he wanted her to do that she failed to realise the Commodore was in the room.<p>

"Um, yes, sorry that I took so long."

"Never mind Sakura," he was still seated at his desk, exactly the same way he was positioned when she had left the room. "Did you get what you needed to gather?"

For a split second she stood in confusion, wondering what he was talking about. It wasn't until she remembered that she had told him she was going to collect her 'stuff' that she realised what he was talking about. "Oh! Um, no, I didn't…"

"Why not? Isn't that the whole reason you left?" He sent a questioning glance in her direction. Although he didn't seem mad, Sakura new she had to think of something quick before he figured out that she was lying.

"I wanted to gather… some, er, photo's that I brought with me. The ones of my family. But it doesn't matter now; they're ruined from the water. You know, you should probably have those leaks in the hull fixed."

"We have been informed of that concern, but you must understand we are busy people Sakura. Once we have the priority jobs finished, we will work on smaller issues like that."

Well, it was a start. As long as she mentioned matters like that, she knew she was slowly helping the rest of the prisoners that weren't getting the attention that she was. But did she say it to early? Maybe she should have said it a bit more subtly and not have been so forward, or maybe after she got to know the Commodore a bit more? "Yes, I understand Commodore."

"Please," the man said, standing up and walking over to her. He wore a warm smile across his lips. "Call me Neji."

_First names_. If her mother and father had taught her anything about social etiquette, it was that when a superior allowed her to call him or her by their first name, it was a sign of trust. And trust was the one thing she needed in this little plan of her and Kiba's.

"Uh, sure… Neji. Are you sure you're alright with that? I mean, I feel rude, we don't really know each other all that well..."

"Well, shall we get to know each other then?" He directed her to the small wooden dining table to the left of the room. She did so while returning the warm smile, seating at the table with her fingers nervously fiddling at the seams of her dress.

"So, you're Sakura Haruno. You were a prisoner at the Konoha Prisoner Base, been imprisoned for almost three months. Cause of imprisonment: Food Thievery, no history of mental or physical illness, only injury fault is a bullet wound to the left leg, caused at time of sentence. No record of marriage, no kids and no record of previous employment. You'd be surprised Sakura, I know a lot more than you think."

Her eyes widened at the bunch of information Neji seemed to have on her. He, or one of his workers, had actually gone to the effort to dig up as much dirt on her as possible. It's funny that at that very moment, Sakura's mind had gone into overdrive to remember every bad mistake, action or bad move she had made in her past that might affect her chances of being trusted. Thankfully, Sakura had never had a criminal record previous to the one she had now, and she couldn't recall any _extremely_ bad situations which would put her future reputation with the Commodore at risk.

"How do you know all that?" she said after a brief moment of silence.

"I have files on each and every person on this ship. It's these files which helped me distinguish the strong prisoners from the weak, but your case was different. Your position in the shift movement was purely based off luck as I had not received any files on you prior to my visit to Konoha."

"So why did you choose me? I was in a cell with four other larger, stronger men, yet you picked me out of all of them to join you.''

"Because they appeared lazy and languid. That wasn't the attitude I wanted for this project. And you, well you had this look of determination in your eye, a look very similar to the one my wife once had."

There he goes again, bringing up his wife. By now Sakura was starting to get the impression that maybe the reason this man was taking her under his wing was not because she was strong, or determined, but simply because she was filling in the void his wife once filled. Hell, where was this girl anyway? What happened to her? Why wasn't she on the ship with him? Even though this guy was treating Sakura correctly, there was still something not quite right about him. Everyone had a past and Sakura was definitely going to get to the bottom of his. Maybe not tonight, but eventually.

"Why do you want strong people, I mean, what's so good about them?" She questioned him in a hope to get some answers.

With a self-satisfying smirk, Neji folded his arms. "Because if everyone on this ship is strong, my project will be successful. I know you're confused now Sakura, but once everything is explained everyone will be thanking me." He stood up now, walking to the cabin window with his hands behind his back. "Everyone will realise that what I'm doing is good. Actually it's not just good, it's _genius_. We'll be a nation of our own."

_A nation of our own_? As soon as Sakura was beginning to get answers there was a loud bang at the door. She snapped out of her thoughts to find a guard short of breath and standing impatiently in the doorframe.

"Commodore, you must come quick, a fight has broken out upon deck!"

The Commodore turned around calmly. "Well do something about it."

"Sir, its Rakon and his gang causing trouble again. You need to come quick,"

It was at that moment Sakura's stomach dropped. _Oh no, Kiba!_


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: So… anyone still there? I'm so sorry for the massive delay between chapters! It's just that sporting commitments and my job have kind of taken up all the free time I have, on top of school and assignments and blah blah blah… And to make things worse, because I haven't written in so long it feels like I've lost whatever talent I may have had and writing has become difficult -.-**

**So yes, in other words this chapter is kind of sloppy. It's not very well written but believe me I tried, it's just so difficult when you have so much stuff on your mind! Ugh. ANYWAY, enough with the sympathy train. I guess I should mention that this chapter explores a fair few scenes or 'sections' if that's what you want to call it, I've been trying to make the chapters longer so I've had to explain a lot of stuff. You'll understand what I mean as you read haha. Anyway hurry up and get reading, I've kept you waiting for too long! **

* * *

><p>She paced back and forth impatiently. Half an hour had passed and there was still no word from the Commodore or Kiba. The Commodore had forbidden her from leaving the room so she had no idea what was wrong, who was hurt or what it was about. All she wanted was answers!<p>

Being locked in a room gave her too much time to think. She didn't like to think. What usually started off as a small, pointless thought would always spiral into a disaster inside of her head. It was a habit she had always had, but she preferred to think of it as a disease; a disease that would eventually conquer her mind if she didn't have someone to let her know everything was going to be OK. And that's when Kiba came into play, the boy who she had known for such little time but relied on so heavily. She had already had so many people torn away from her; first her family, then Kurenai, she didn't need it to happen again with Kiba.

She heard a soft rumbling of footsteps outside of the cabin door. Her head snapped upright as her heart began to pound and her breathing grew heavy, hoping for nothing but good news. The door pushed open to reveal Neji, a tad out of breath but still in a composed form walking through the door with six guards standing behind him, them too looking a little exhausted_. It must have been one hell of a fight if it took this many men to break it up, _she thought as panic started to set in. "Get some rest," Neji said quietly, but not quietly enough. "We stop are Orana Bay tomorrow for our third shipload of prisoners. It's not going to be a walk in the park so I want you all in top condition. Now leave."

"What happened? Is everything OK?" Sakura asked as the soldiers left. Neji shut the door and entered the room, Sakura taking no time in asking her questions.

He gave her an expressionless glare as he walked straight past her, heading over to the coat rack and taking off his jacket. "Everything's fine."

"Are you going to tell me what just went on up there? You were gone for about half an hour. You can't tell me that was nothing."

"You heard the officer before; a fight broke out on deck. You know, for someone who should be quiet and scared of this whole situation, you certainly ask a lot of questions." Neji stared down at Sakura with his arms folded neatly against his chest. He was right; every other passenger on board the ship was terrified. They were terrified of where they were going, the people who were on board, what was going to happen, and they were scared. And here was Sakura, trying to act like some hero and most probably annoying the life out of the Commodore with all her questions.

"Oh believe me, I am scared," she said, fidgeting with her gown. "I'm just seeking reassurance."

The Commodore nodded and left it at that, as did Sakura. He took the keys from the pocket of his hanging jacket and hung them from a small hook next to the cabin door where Sakura took a mental image. That was enough questions for today.

* * *

><p>A short four hours later, the ship was quiet. Darkness fell over every window, every floorboard, and every sail as Sakura slowly removed the blanket from her tiny body. She was counting on the little light emitting from the moon to see where she was going, but unfortunately it was hidden behind a thick set of grey clouds, like the way a child in trouble hides it face away behind its hands. She glanced up slowly from the mattress beneath Neji's bed to check if he was asleep before standing quietly. The cold air immediately sent shivers running up her legs and spine even faster than the ship was sailing. The nights were always cold, and they were only getting colder.<p>

Almost as if her feet were a pair of feathers, Sakura tip toed as lightly as she could across the floorboards to where the Commodores jacket was hanging limply. With her nerves beginning to kick in, she made sure she put the jacket around herself before making her way to the door and reaching nervously for the keys. With one last breath she opened the door slowly but quietly. She made sure she was careful with every move she made, for she knew that one false move, one mistake, her cover would be blown and she would be left in a mess of confusion and possible abandonment. But this moving slowly thing just wasn't her style; she was too anxious to figure out what had happened. It was eleven o clock at night and she hadn't had a wink of sleep, mainly because she was worried about Kiba, and mainly because she wanted to _see_ Kiba.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the door made a loud groaning noise. Her body froze and her heart stopped, the air suddenly becoming so thick that she found it hard to breathe. _That's it; I'm done for,_ she thought as she glanced back at Neji. Fortunately he didn't even stir, and she sighed a breath of relief as she continued on.

The coldness was really something she hated. Even with the Commodores thick jacket on she found her hands shaking as she fumbled with the keys to the Hull. Her senses were all on high alert; every creak, thump or rattle she heard in the distance had her convinced that someone had discovered her. It was like severe anxiety but in overload. She had to constantly keep telling herself that all the guards, all the soldiers and the commodore were all off duty and fast asleep.  
>When she had finally made the key fit, she took no time into scurrying down the damp steps and into the hull below. As she expected, everyone was asleep, which made it easier for her to spot Kiba and make her way through everyone. With her she had a basket of things she had gathered from around the cabin; an apple from the desk which the Commodore worked at, three slices of bread which she managed to smuggle from dinner, a flask of clean water, a cloth and bar of soap, and a bandage in case he had any wounds from his fight. Even though the Commodore didn't inform her of whom the fight involved, she had no doubts that it was Rakon and his crew starting on Kiba again. It didn't take an idiot to figure that one out.<p>

She tip-toed quietly in and out amongst the sleeping prisoners with her eyes carefully scanning the floor for Kiba. It stunk down there; a mix between human waste, vomit from sea sickness and the stench of sweat filled her nostrils, and all of a sudden she was thankful for the Commodore to have taken her in, even if she wasn't too keen on the guy. The smell was enough to send a person crazy alone.  
>When her eyes finally found the brown haired teen she smiled, and darted over to him like she hadn't seen him in days. But that smile soon disappeared when she saw what kind of state he was in.<p>

"Kiba!" she gasped, running over to his side. He stirred, but couldn't move or say much. She raised a hand to her mouth as she observed his wounds; his left eye was black, his face was covered in bruises, a stream of dried up blood sat beneath his nose and a deep gash in his left arm left a large stain on his white, dirty long sleeved shirt. She could feel herself starting to panic but kept her composure. If she started crying and shaking like a little girl she knew it wouldn't fix anything, she needed to act calm and mature for once; it was her turn to return the favour.

"Hey, Kiba, look at me." She whispered as she gave his face a soft tap. His eyes flickered open, and he smiled softly as he realised it was her.

"Hey, you came…" he murmured, using the little strength he had left to grab hold of her hand. She frowned at his sudden affection but realised that his condition was pretty bad, and maybe he just needed some comforting.

"I told you I'd be here," she frowned, "What happened to you?"

He let his head rest against the back wall again as he re shut his eyes. "I fell."

Sakura laughed. She liked the way he could still make a joke out of the worst of situations. In a way it made her feel a lot more relaxed, more calm, more comfortable. "Oh yeah, like I'm going to fall for that. Now come on, out with it."

"Rakon started on me again. Kept saying how he was going to get me when my back was turned or something like that. Now that I could deal with, but when he started threatening me about you, that's when I got upset. Ouch, go easy!" He flinched as Sakura tended to the wound on his arm. She was finding it difficult to reach the wound through his shirt which left her with only one option; having to remove it. "Sorry, I'm not real good at this..." she laughed as she brushed her hair off of her face. "I don't mean to make things all awkward and stuff, but I can only fix your arm if you... uh... take off your shirt."

Kiba smirked. "If you want to see me naked Sakura, all you have to do is ask…"

"That's not it at all!" She fired back, punching him lightly in the arm that wasn't wounded.

"Ouch! Relax, I was kidding!"

She shook her head at him as he took off his shirt, somewhat nervous as he did it, but excited at the same time. She wasn't going to lie; Kiba was hot. But as he tautly removed his shirt, what she saw was not what she had in mind.  
>She gaped in horror at the bruises which covered his sides. The horrific glowing red whip lashes marked every inch of his back, and his skin was burning hot. "Kiba…" Sakura said, her eyes wide. "What… what the hell did they do to you!"<p>

"Keep your voice down…" he whispered as he put a hand to her mouth. "They'll hear you."

She didn't know what to say. It looked so painful, so _brutal,_ the way he was acting so calm about his injuries had her stunned. She knew she had to think fast, so without saying another word she got up and rushed back up to the deck where she found a crowbar and small tin bucket, filling it with water. She tip-toed as fast as she could back into the cabin and into Neji's room, where much to her relief she found him still fast asleep, dead to the world in his warm bed which he greatly took for granted. With her heart pounding heavily against her chest, she attached the crowbar to the handle of the bucket and held it over the fire and added a pinch of salt. She held it there for a few minutes until the water was lukewarm before rushing off as quietly as she could back down into the depths of the Hull.

"Where did you go?" Kiba asked, looking at the bucket in her hand as she quietly ran down the stairs.

"Shh," she said softly, lying him down. "This will help. It might sting a little, but you just gotta trust me with this one."

She dipped the clean cloth into the warm salty water and gently dabbed it on his skin. He flinched at her touch, but after she softly repeated the same gentle, dabbing motion over and over again, his body started to feel relieved. "This will help with infection," she said quietly. "Sorry if it stings a little,"

"Don't be sorry. It actually feels kind of good once you get used to it."

She watched as his crafted muscles flexed beneath her touch. The way something that looked so perfect could be mistreated so badly angered her, it just wasn't fair. His build had her wondering about what Kiba's life would have been like before the shift movement. Was he some kind of carpenter? Maybe he was a fisherman who spent his days out at sea, hurling up net after net of fish onto the boat deck. Or maybe he was a fighter; when Sakura really thought about it, the way he fought Rakon on the very first day they met made her wonder how he battled so skilfully. But another question that racked her thoughts was what he had actually done to land himself in prison in the first place. She had so many questions but knew that this was neither the time nor place to ask.

When she had finished cleaning his wounds she offered him the flask of clean water, which he drank in a matter of seconds. She told him about the plans for the ship to pick up more passengers at Orana Bay, which he listened to intently, and after that she offered him the bread in which he smiled and thanked her. He hadn't seen or eaten decent food in days, and even the simplest of foods like bread seemed like a luxury at the time. "So did they all gang up on you? I mean, like, Rakon and his friends? Or was it just one on one? These wounds look to fierce to just be caused by one person…"

"Surprisingly it was just one on one. The funny thing is, these wounds aren't from Rakon... They're from the guards."

"What? The guards?" she rubbed the cloth gently over his face to clean off the dry blood. "You mean… it was the commodore and his soldiers that did this to you?"

"You see, when the guards were finding it difficult to break up the fight they called in the Commodore. Rakon saw that as an advantage and started yelling out stuff like, 'Go on, Commodore! This little punk is hitting on your Miss's, what are ya gonna do?' you know, trying to get him all stirred up."

Sakura's heart dropped a little. _Well that would explain Neji's bluntness earlier._ "And then what happened?"

Kiba flinched as she rubbed the cloth over his eyebrow. "They broke up the fight and separated us. I don't know what they did with Rakon, but they took me into some room where they store crates of alcohol and old tools, the place was covered in dust. Must have been an old storeroom or something I'm guessing. They started asking me questions, questions about you."

"What did you tell them? Please don't tell me… don't tell me these wounds are because of me?"

"The guards told the Commodore that they had seen us earlier on and they were suspicious. He just kept asking me the same thing over and over again'What connection do you have with this girl?' When I wouldn't answer them they'd whip me. Start beating into me even though my hands were tied behind my back and I was defenceless. It went on for about half an hour until they finally gave up. Commodore figured I wasn't going to speak, so they through me back down in here. Said that tonight I was to sleep without my share of rations."

Sakura felt her chest ache as her eyes started to swell up with tears. "Oh Kiba, I'm so sorry…"

"Don't be sorry," he smiled, weakly taking to her hand. "I'm alive, aren't I? And they still don't have any idea about what's going on. It just means from now on, the only time we can talk about this kind of stuff is now. It's too risky during the day; the guards and other prisoners will see us."

"So what, we just go on like we don't know each other?"

"Yeah, something like that…"

"Alright, sounds easy enough. She replied, trying to hide the fact that she didn't exactly like the plan. She didn't feel comfortable around Neji at all, and even though she was always trying to prove to everyone that she was this strong, brave woman, she was beginning to depend on Kiba's reassurance to keep her going. She needed it because she was scared; scared of messing up, scared of what awful things would happen to them if what they were discovered, scared of failure.

She shivered as the brisk night air started to take its toll again. "You're cold, maybe you should go back to bed." Kiba said as he re positioned himself.

"N-no its f-fine, I need to fix you up first-

"Sakura," he laughed at the way the coldness made her stutter. He thought it was cute, the way she was letting something more subtle break through that hard exterior of hers was something he would have liked to see more of. "You've done more than enough for me tonight. Now quick, get yourself to bed before you catch a cold or something."

She smiled weakly and nodded, knowing full well that a cold was the last thing she needed. She handed him back his blood stained shirt and gathered up the flask before pausing awkwardly. "So I guess this is the last time I'll see you before tomorrow night?"

"Yeah… don't feel nervous, Sakura. I promise time will go quickly!" he replied with a reassuring smile.

She took a deep breath and nodded before hugging Kiba goodbye, forcing herself to walk faster and leave behind everything that she found so hard to walk away from.

* * *

><p>A burnt orange glow covered the afternoon sky as one prisoner after another boarded the ship. The sky looked empty; dull, cloudless and dismal. She could hear the sound of waves crashing against the docked boat, and in the near distance whistles were blowing as if every new prisoner from Orana Bay were dogs they needed to control through use of pitch. She picked away at the soft rotting wood upon the rail beside her, realising that maybe, the ship wasn't so fancy after all. Well, of course it wasn't. Judging from what she had seen so far it was far from fancy. Sure, the upper class soldiers and guards aboard the ship may play a part in the perfect image the ship portrayed, but in reality the whole situation resembled something along the lines of a rotting piece of fruit; Shiny, appealing and engaging on the outside, but rotten, foul and outright vile on the inside. It was a sailing hell.<br>But Sakura couldn't complain. She had it a lot easier than all the other prisoners aboard the ship. All her days involved was watching other people work themselves to the bone while she did nothing, each slaving away awaiting the measly piece of bread they would receive that night as a reward for their hard work. And it angered her watching, knowing she was in a position where she couldn't do anything. She had tried reasoning, asking, suggesting, but none of her attempts prevailed. And so she found herself again watching, as prisoner by prisoner slowly lumbered on in single file aboard the ship. The look on their faces… it was familiar, Sakura recognised it straight away. Their expression screamed hope, Each thinking that this voyage was going to be a type of freedom, a new beginning, a chance to start over. But boy, were they wrong. So painfully wrong. And all she could do was watch, telling herself to yell at them to turn around, to run away or escape, to do anything at all, but she couldn't. She just sat there, painfully watching them board what could possibly be their fate, like cows to the slaughter.

"Welcome passengers, to the SS Victory."

The Commodores voice beamed with overconfidence. An arrogant confidence that didn't impress anyone on board besides himself. Everyone slothfully crowded around the small platform which had been set up near the entrance of the cabin area. The deck looked different now; maybe it was because it had different people, or more women, or maybe it was the extra supplies which were brought on board. Small cages crammed with geese and chickens sat untidily piled on top of one another, and extra cargo made the place seem more cluttered.

"I've called this gathering today, because there are a few things I need to get off my chest. During the past few days I've realised that things seem to be getting slack; workers are becoming lazy, fellow prisoners are finding it okay to talk up to guards and a few people have even taken it upon themselves to start violent affrays during working hours. May you all be reminded that this behaviour will not be tolerated, and those who wish to go against these rules will receive a dozen lashes to the back."

Sakura looked out across the small sea of people covering the deck, all of them oblivious to her situation, and the new prisoners oblivious to their own. "I understand that many of you are confused, but your situation will be explained eventually. Until that time you will follow orders and instructions given, and those who protest against them will again receive twenty lashes to the back, or in extreme cases, the death penalty." Neji took one final look at the gathered people. "You're dismissed."

* * *

><p>The trap door from the roof of the Hull swung open with a bang. Down fell a small bucket of food scraps, half eaten and chewed up, splattering onto the damp and mouldy floor of the hull. Kiba watched as the prisoners pushed and palmed each other away in an attempt to get some food for themselves, even the odd convict resorting to punching another in the hope of getting something to eat. They looked like animals<em>, scavengers<em>, a flock of vultures fighting over the carcass of a dead animal.

But Kiba knew better than to physically hurt someone over a measly piece of food. Judging by the scraps they were given, it wasn't even worth the energy and effort anyway. Rakon and his crew were the first to scurry to the food, followed by a few of the other men, at the back of the line were the females and children, and lastly were a small group of confused Orana Bay prisoners. They hovered around the back of the line fiddling with their hands hesitantly, not exactly knowing what to do or who to talk to, and Kiba realised by watching them that the new inmates didn't exactly know how the whole ration/feeding schedule played out.

"Is it usually like this?

Kiba didn't even notice the boy sitting across from him, sitting against the wall with his arms folded against his chest. His long, dark brown hair was pulled back into a pigtail, and his face and body position appeared relaxed and sluggish despite the circumstances.

"All the time." Kiba replied, looking back over at the clustered group of human savages before focussing his gaze back on the boy across from him. "You from Orana Bay?"

"Unfortunately. Is it that obvious?"

"Kind of." Kiba gestured in the direction of the hungry prisoners. "If you were from our shipment, I could almost guarantee you'd be over there amongst them."

"Is that right. Can I ask why you're not over there then?" the boy asked, not really sounding too interested in what he was even asking.

Kiba remembered how Sakura would smuggle food for him, so it was only fair he left the scraps for the men, woman and children that really needed it. He could hold off until he saw her again.  
>"I'm not exactly hungry, feeling a little sea sick I guess." Kiba leant forward until he was in reach of the brunette and offered out his hand. "I'm Kiba by the way."<p>

The boy accepted his hand with a strong grip and shook it. "Shikamaru Nara, accused thief and violent offender."

"Accused?" Kiba raised a brow.

"My brother stole a ham and I helped him eat it. The only thing is, he managed to get away whereas I didn't. And for the whole 'violent offender' part, I was pushed into a guard by another guard, which lead to being accused for unnecessary violence. I guess they just wanted a better excuse to put me away."

Kiba shook his head. He could understand what Shikamaru meant, with these people it was the littlest of crimes that had people like them put away. "So I guess whoever these guys are, raided your village too huh.

"You're not wrong. But I guess it happened way too quick to even really think about it. I guess one minute I was in bed, the next my house was being raided by loser soldiers and guards." Shikamaru stopped what he was saying and curiously nodded his head in the direction of Rakon and his crew. One of them had some man pinned to the ground, whilst Rakon ransacked the pockets of his jacket in search of food. It was a typical, ruthless attempt at survival, not something that Shikamaru was used to. "Those guys, I guess they're the group everyone tries to avoid, right?"

Kiba softly chuckled to himself as he remembered the encounters he and Rakon had partook, realising that despite his size, Rakon wasn't all he shaped up to be. "They may look scary, but most of it is just talk."

"You've had to deal with him before?" asked Shikamaru curiously, noticing the bruises that covered Kiba's face.

"On more than one occasion." Kiba glanced back over at Shikamaru. "But you heard the Commodore this afternoon; it's probably best not to go messing with him. Things are getting pretty strict around here, the last thing we need is to lose a prisoner through the death penalty."

"Me? Mess with those guys?" Shikamaru laughed. "I can't even be bothered to make my own breakfast in the morning let alone start an argument with someone three times the size of me."

"Well you're in for a shock around here then, that's for sure." Kiba laughed as shifted his position. Water was leaking from the planks up above him and dripping through his shirt onto the lacerations on his back. He knew full well that the water was coming from the deck above him, and seeing as it was leaking through the filthy wooden boards it was bound to be contaminated. The pain on his wounds hurt enough as it was, the last thing he needed was serious infection.

"You mean, they make us work?" Shikamaru groaned. "This voyage is going to be a pain in the ass."

"It's not going to be a holiday, I can assure you that. They wake us at sunrise; from there we scrub the deck, check the sails, and make sure the ship is looking spotless before the rest of the crew wake up. Then they shove us back down here for a few more hours, collect us at about lunch time to do more cleaning and carting around on deck, then its shoved back down here for the night. Welcome to the SS Victory."

Shikamaru's head leant back and hit the wall with a thump. The look of defeat had already got the better of him before his journey had even started. "Try and keep your head up though Nara," Kiba continued, "Because having someone on my side can make this whole voyage a lot easier."

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><p><strong>Again I apologise if it's not that great, but at least it's something! Keep in mind, reviews get me motivated More reviews, quicker chapters! Thanks guys)<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

That sickness was back.  
>She could feel the vomit forcing its way up through her throat again, the rocking and swaying of the boat not making her situation any easier. She threw her hand to her mouth in an attempt to keep it down but it was a lot harder than she thought. Her stomach and chest jerked, but this time her mind overcame her body and she managed to keep herself from bringing up everything from inside her stomach.<p>

The sickly smell of freshly cooked meat filled her nostrils. She looked to her right to see the Commodore seated at the small dining table in the centre of the room, wearing a small smile and a napkin tucked into the collar of his white long-sleeved shirt. "Good morning Sakura," he said cheerfully as he looked towards her. "Would you like some breakfast?"

_Clearly he hadn't noticed her just almost throw up_. She looked at the way the table was set up; two plates covered in bacon and eggs, with a glass of fresh orange juice positioned on a coaster next to it and a small vase with a single red rose sitting within. As much as she wanted to dig into the breakfast and feed her face, her stomach had other plans. She was still nauseous and even if she did eat there was no way she would have been able to keep it down. "No thanks, I think I'll pass on breakfast this morning."

"Very well, I'll just put it aside for later in case you get hungry." He smiled gently before finishing off his breakfast and moving over to the cabin sink to wash off his plates. She lowered her head shamefully, feeling slightly guilty that he was being so nice to her. As his back was turned, Sakura slowly started to slip out of her night dress so she could get changed into the dress he had provided her at the beginning of the voyage. It was awkward, getting unchanged in front of him, but the cabins on board the ship were all fairly tiny so she didn't have many options. It was a lovey dress; the white silk and lace felt amazing against her tired skin, and it hadn't lost a single bit of its condition even after it had been worn daily and dragged along the dirty ship floor. She reached her hands behind her back to tie up the laces of the corset. She frowned when she couldn't do it properly, becoming frustrated with herself as her hands struggled to reach and tighten the laces correctly. Her body came to a slight jolt as she felt a pair of hands on top of hers, gently but firmly pulling the laces to the corset tighter. The material pressed uncomfortably tighter against her stomach. Tighter than it was before.

When he was finished, he gently rested his hands on top of her shoulders. Her heart beat softly against her chest. Nerves, maybe? Or the awkwardness from the uncomfortable distance between them? He used his arms to slowly turn her around so that he could look at her. "You really do look beautiful in this dress, Sakura."

She looked into his eyes, then blushed and quickly turned away. "Thank you, Commodore."

"Please, Call me Neji." He replied with another smile.

"Erm, uh sorry, Neji." She held her hands at her stomach and fidgeted with her fingers. "Do you mind if I go for a walk along the deck? I just need to get a bit of fresh air."

"Sure. Ill just be at my desk doing some mapping. Just ask me if you need anything." He turned away and sat at his old timber desk, flipping through paper work and old books that sat within the drawers and on the surface. "And Sakura?"

"Yes?"

He turned to her, this time his expression more serious. "Try to keep yourself out of trouble."

She nodded yes, and exited the cabin.

* * *

><p>As soon as the salty air hit her nostrils, her mind couldn't hold back her stomach any more. She rushed over to the edge, throwing her head over the railing and vomiting into the navy blue ocean beneath her. Up came all her food from dinner last night until there was physically nothing else left to bring up. She breathed heavy, continuing to dry reach and wiping her damp hair out of her face. She hated this feeling, and the longer she stayed on the ship, the more common it was becoming. Pulling her nauseated body away from the railing, she turned away quickly to make sure no guards had witnessed her throwing up; she didn't need the Commodore becoming suspicious and concerned.<p>

She spun around quickly and attempted to act normal, but instead bumped firmly into someone. Sakura stood up and apologised, dusting herself off and feeling awful about almost bowling over one of the prisoners. She noticed it was a woman, not one that she had seen yet, so she figured she might have been from the Orana Bay shipment. She was a brunette, her hair scooped up into two messy buns on the top of her head. She had big, soft, dark brown eyes, and looked to be at least two or three years older than Sakura.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said, offering the woman her hand. "Please, let me help you up,"

The girl smiled softly and accepted her hand as she was pulled to her feet. Her russet eyes were warm and showed no sign of anger or disgust for someone who had just been knocked over. And for that, Sakura was relieved.

"Please sweetie, it's fine!" she smiled, mentally identifying the pinkette. A small smirk crept across her face. "Pink hair, bright green eyes. So, you must be Sakura?"

Sakura frowned, puzzled. How did this girl know her name?

"Y-yes," she stuttered, still trying to wrap her mind around her current situation. "Excuse me if I come across as rude, but how on earth do you know my name?"

"My name is Tenten, I'm from the Orana Bay shipment. I know this might sound strange, but I've heard a lot about you."

Sakura frowned again. All this confusion was not helping her already unclear circumstances, or her still present nausea. "What-how, from who?"

Tenten took a deep breath. "Well to simplify things, my friend Shikamaru was talking to your friend Kiba last night. He told him about what had been happening on-board the ship; the fights, the way things worked, the unclear destination… and how he didn't really have anyone. No one besides you, that is." She tried to give Sakura a reassuring smile to make her feel a little more at ease. "That's when he asked for some of Shikamaru's help, and Shikamaru then offered me a chance to help out too. Kiba figured the more people he could trust on board this ship, the easier this whole voyage can be." Sakura nodded for Tenten to continue. "Kiba mentioned the plan you two had come up with to get some answers, the plan you two had devised and you so bravely agreed to. And from then on, he told us a lot about you, Sakura."

Something registered in Sakura's head. She thought back to last night, and how she waited until the Commodore was fast asleep before sneaking out to the entrance of the hull. She had the key in the lock, ready to open and check on Kiba, but she could hear way too much commotion and voices coming from within. It must have been Tenten, Shikamaru and Kiba talking. As horrible as she thought she was by turning around and not visiting Kiba, she knew she had made the right decision regarding keeping her cover safe. She couldn't have angry and jealous prisoners finding out about her having proper bedding, being fed, and showered properly. She couldn't have them finding out that she was secretly smuggling food for Kiba, and she definitely couldn't have them finding out about the plan they had put together in hope of finding out the answers to this so called 'project'.

Sakura smiled, thinking about what stuff Kiba must have said about her. But the smile soon vanished when nausea got the better of her again, and once more she found herself stumbling towards the side of the deck to vomit. "Oh, you poor thing…" Tenten sighed as she held the small pink strands of hair back from Sakura's face.

"Thanks," she said as she used the back of her palm to wipe her mouth. "But I'm fine, I don't need any help."

Tenten laughed. "Kiba said you'd say that. But he also told us to ignore you if you said that."

A smirk crept across Sakura's face as she continued to look down into the waters cobalt depths. _This boy's starting to know me too well._

When Sakura was finished she turned to Tenten. "I trust Kiba," she began. "So I understand his decision to let you in on this is a good one."

"Don't think about us too much Sakura, if anything we've made this whole thing a little bit easier." Tenten smiled warmly, grabbing Sakura's hand gently in hers. "You need to focus on your own little situation, the one that's going on there. Does he know?" She narrowed her eyes to the pinkettes stomach.

Sakura's eyes froze open in shock. Her chest tightened. Her heart began to thud uncomfortably. She… she couldn't possibly know… could she?

"How... How did you know…?"

"I've had two of my own. I know the symptoms when I see it dear."

Sakura's eyes narrowed to the deck and she tried to hold back her tears. Her tears of fear, of nervousness, of sadness. She didn't want it to happen and she didn't mean for it to happen. She was already scared, being on a boat with dangerous people, with a man she didn't even know and a plan she couldn't figure out. Falling pregnant to a dirty criminal who raped her in her cell in Konoha wasn't on the cards. None of this was.

"Does the Commodore know?" Tenten repeated sympathetically. She rubbed Sakura's arm to try and comfort her from crying. Sakura shook her head from side to side, still looking at the ground and refusing to let her tears spill. Tenten continued. "Well that little bump isn't going to stay that small forever. Eventually you'll need to tell him, Sakura, and to be perfectly honest with you, I don't know if it's going to settle with the Commodore real well."

"I'll tell him eventually. He's actually not a bad person, I-I'm pretty sure he'll understand,"

"For your, sake, I hope he does sweetie." Tenten pulled Sakura into a warm, reassuring hug. "Now I need to go before the guards get suspicious. If there's anything I can do for you regarding the baby, don't hesitate to let me know. You're a brave girl Sakura."

As Tenten turned away and started to head back towards the other labouring prisoners, Sakura snapped upright. "Tenten?"

The brunette turned around. "Yes?"

"Can… can you please not tell Kiba about this?"

Tenten nodded in understanding, and proceeded to turn away.

* * *

><p>"Those boxes go on top of the pile to the left."<p>

Kiba ran his hands through his messy brown hair which was damp along his hairline. The sun blistered his skin and caused sweat to drip slowly from his brow, the rays burning agonizingly hard onto the bodies of every slaving prisoner. The heat was by far at its worst that day. There was no wind to cool them, and there was no rain to soothe them. The days felt as if they were getting longer, like they were getting even more scorching, and the work felt like it was getting more exhausting. The lacerations on his back were burning in pain beneath his dirty white shirt as he shifted boxes from pile to pile. The sea was rather still and Kiba was thankful the boat was sailing quicker than usual. With the seas acting calm the boat was able to sail a bit faster, hopefully making Kiba's desire for land come quicker than expected.

"This is such a drag, the quicker we get off this boat the better." Shikamaru groaned as he placed a crate of cargo on top of an unstable pile of boxes. His skin too was damp with perspiration.

Kiba laughed, securing a rope hanging from one of the sails around a tall wooden post. "Ya might want to get used to it buddy, because I still haven't seen an ounce of land appear on that damn horizon."

"Why do we have so many damn supplies anyway? Supplies definitely are outweighing the people on this ship, yet we're still getting limited rations." Shikamaru grunted. He reached for another box, shifting it to the other side of the deck so he was able to scrub the mouldy floor beneath where the pile of crates once stood.

"Because we don't know where we're going, or who these supplies are for. And as much as I hate working for these jerks, I know that I'm just going to have to grin and bear it until we figure out what the hell is going on." Kiba gritted his teeth in anger and continued to fold up the ropes. He was so angry inside. The urge to hold back from knocking out all the surrounding soldiers and guards was becoming harder and harder each day.

He glanced up for a second, catching a glimpse of pink hair further up along the deck. Walking along the side of the top deck with her hand brushing along the rail was Sakura, wearing the beautiful white laced gown that Neji had provided her with. She looked a little tired, but Kiba still secretly thought she looked beautiful. She deserved to be out of rags and treated properly. Not down here with grimy criminals and dirty no-hopers. She scanned her eyes until her glance caught him, and she smiled. Kiba smiled back, cheekily winking at her which caused her to laugh and roll her eyes in the distance. She had come a long way since when he first met her, she had begun to let people in, and let people help her. He would have loved it if they could talk, interact, reassure each other, but they had both promised one another that it was too dangerous and they would catch up on conversation late that night. And surprisingly, Kiba was looking forward to that.

Shikamaru looked over to Kiba and caught him looking at something further up deck. He followed his gaze until he saw the pink head of hair which his eyes were rested on_. So, that's the girl he won't shut up about, huh._ He smiled and shook his head, rolling his eyes at his lust struck partner and continuing to work.

Kiba's gaze quickly faltered as a striking pain tore through his back. The heat of the sun had finally become too much, taking its toll on his still tender lacerations. His legs weakened as he rested his weight on the side of the ship, Shikamaru walking to his side. "Kiba, you Ok?"

From a distance Sakura's eyes watched in horror. She wanted so bad to rush over and help him like all the times he had helped her, but it was too risky. She knew exactly what was causing him pain and couldn't do a thing to help. People would see and get suspicious.

"I'm... I'm fine," he said bravely through painfully gritted teeth. His hand clenched his back in an attempt to apply pressure and ease the pain. "Let's get back to work. Maybe we'll get let off early."

"It's probably not a wise idea for you to keep working like this." Shikamaru replied with his arms folded. Although lazy, Shikamaru was smart and far from being an idiot.

Kiba grinned. "Well it's a good thing I'm not wise then, isn't it?"

"Alright you pack of scum, water break. And make it quick!" one of the larger guards bellowed from his observing point in the middle of the ship. One by one the prisoners slowly lumbered over to the singular tap with their empty water bottles, forming a single line as they waited to have their bottles filled. Kiba and Shikamaru stood in the middle of the line patiently with the sun still heavily hammering onto their tired skin. Both of their heads throbbed, dehydration and lack of sleep was getting the better of them and their body's neared exhaustion. Shikamaru's state wasn't as bad as Kiba's, for it was his first day working whereas Kiba had been doing it for about a week now, and it was starting to take effect.

It was at that moment Kiba heard some bustling towards the end of the line. He and Shikamaru turned their heads to check out what all the pushing and shoving was about, only to see Rakon pushing his way through a bunch of patiently waiting people. It instantly made Kiba angry.

"Get out of my way, move!" he roared as he pushed a bunch of men and children out of his way. Everyone was too scared to speak up to him and defend themselves so they stood back reluctantly, too exhausted to even argue. As soon as Rakon's oversized hand landed upon Kiba's shoulder, Kiba knew it was enough. "That means you get out of my way too, you little punk."

Swiftly turning around and clasping Rakon by the throat, guards and prisoners watched in awe as Kiba angrily pushed Rakon back into the side railing of the ship.

"Oh, hey there Rakon," Kiba said only inches away from Rakon's face. His hand gripped around Rakon's throat with such immense pressure that Rakon could barely breathe. "Now if you were a smart man, you'd make your way back to the end of the line now, wouldn't ya?"

Shikamaru watched from the line wondering if he should step in and break it up. He realised that the heat and pain that Kiba was experiencing was fuelling his anger, and didn't know if he should let his current situation slide or not. "Get…get off me…!" Rakon wheezed as Kiba's hand gripped tighter. Like Kiba, Rakon was also feeling the effect of the heat, making him feel a lot weaker than usual.

"Listen to me _buddy_; I'm not putting up with anymore of your shit. Nothing makes you better than any other person on this boat. Now like I said before; you'll walk back to the end of the line, and wait your turn like everyone else. And if you don't do as I say, I won't hesitate to kill you."

Kiba's hand released from his throat, his teeth still clenched angrily to the bottom of his jaw. Rakon's face was pale from the lack of oxygen as he slid to the floor with his back still leaning against the ships railing. "Just letting off a little steam, hey Inuzuka?" Shikamaru said as Kiba positioned himself back into the line. For the first time since he had been on the ship he had seen a violent side of Kiba. A scary side.

Taking a deep breath, Kiba replied. "You can only deal with someone for so long until you can't deal with them any longer." He did although, despite his anger, allow a self-satisfied smirk to crawl across his face, content with the way he may have temporarily frightened Rakon. Maybe it would teach him a lesson or two or put a stop to mistreating himself and the other prisoners on board the ship. Whilst Kiba was busy dwelling in his contentment, his gaze unintentionally shifted to wear Sakura was standing on the upper part of the deck. His smile slowly disappeared as Sakura's eyes looked dull with sadness. Had she seen that whole show?

Kiba started to worry. He didn't want Sakura thinking he was a violent person or one of these aggressive inmates. Hell he didn't want her to be scared of him at all, certainly not when he was really the only person she could depend on right now.  
>But after witnessing one of his outbursts, Sakura's shaken eyes seemed to be looking at Kiba a little differently from before. He shot her an apologetic glance before watching as two hands rested comfortably on her shoulders. He resented the way she was startled at first, but then smiled once she realised the Commodore had approached her. It was like she was happy to see the man, she even looked relieved in a way. The two exchanged words that Kiba couldn't quite hear before turning around and heading towards the cabin again.<p>

His chest felt heavier after that. His jaw softly clenched at the way the Commodore looked at her, His eyes wandering aimlessly over her body, his mouth curling into a greedy smirk when they talked, and his hands held her as if she was _his_ possession. Was it jealousy? No, it couldn't be. Kiba couldn't be jealous when he was the one who insisted that she stayed with him in the first place.

And then, as if it was Sakura's turn, she turned towards Kiba one last time, returning the sad apologetic expression he had shown her earlier.

* * *

><p>"Kiba?"<p>

Sakura peered through the bars which sealed closed the hull door. She was relying on the light from the moon to guide her eyes as the candle she had lit beforehand had been blown out by the chilly night wind. "Kiba, are you awake?" She repeated at a whisper, peering closer.

There was some hustling from beneath the stairs, and then soon enough Kiba's face appeared under the dim light of the moon. "About time you showed up," he smirked as he cautiously walked up the stairs.

Sakura's face lit up with excitement as she stared at Kiba's cheeky grin. "If you want to keep being a smartass I can just leave and let you starve?"

"You wouldn't do that,"

"Try me." Sakura smiled cheekily, before taking the key out of the lock. She knew she would never bring herself to actually leave him down there, but playing a little game now and again helped take her mind off things.

But Kiba's playful smile soon faded as his eyes clenched shut and his hand went to his back. A painful expression crossed his face as he groaned in agony. "My…. Back…"

"Kiba!" Sakura gasped as she quickly fumbled with the keys to unlock the padlock. As soon as she opened it she quietly pulled open the door. "Are you ok? I'm sorry, I-

"Gotcha." Kiba's head lifted giving Sakura a mischievous grin. "I knew that would get you to open it. Don't think you can win with this whole game thing Sakura, I can play back twice as hard."

"You, you liar! You had me thinking you were actually in pain!" she punched Kiba hard in the arm, not taking his little 'joke' as lightly as he did.

Kiba quickly through his hand to Sakura's mouth to quiet her down, realising how easily her voice echoed amongst the sails. "Hey, hey! Keep your voice down, they'll hear you."

"Oh, right… sorry,"

Kiba smiled and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Just remember what we're doing is highly against the rules and could get the both of us killed?" he laughed before noticing a blanket gripped gently in the palm of Sakura's hand. "What's the blanket for Kiddo?"

"Oh, this? I thought maybe instead of sitting down in the hull, you know, where it's smelly and stuff… that maybe we could sit out on the deck instead?"

Kiba smiled, enjoying her idea much more than the original one even though it meant having to be more on guard. "Sure. Ladies first," he took the blanket off of her hand and gestured for her to sit down.

"So," Sakura began, handing Kiba over her left over dinner from that night. She had managed to smuggle him a perfectly untouched bread roll, alongside chicken meat and a fresh apple. "This was all I managed to get tonight. It isn't much, but its more than you'd be getting down there."

"It's more than enough, Sakura. Thank you."

She smiled before turning away from him and looking up at the sky. It was perfectly clear, each star feeling close enough for Sakura to touch. Again the night was awfully brisk but she knew Kiba wouldn't mind; the days were getting so excruciatingly hot that she knew the prisoners would be painfully waiting around for the cool night air to hurry up and arrive.

"What's on your mind," Kiba asked, snapping Sakura from her thoughts. "You're thinking about something, I can tell."

"Well of course I'm thinking about something. I'm thinking about a lot of things."

"Like?"

Sakura positioned herself on her back so she was now lying down, continuing to look at the sky. What was on her mind? Everything. Whether each drawing day was getting her closer and closer to being caught sneaking out to see Kiba, Where the boat was sailing to, Why they were being sailed there, The commodore, And most of all, her baby.

"Kiba, do you think… do you think, that we're going to survive this voyage?"

Kiba frowned as he positioned himself next to Sakura on top of the blanket. "Well, I know I will. Not sure about you though."

"Excuse me?" Sakura questioned, sitting up and staring daggers at Kiba from above him. "What do you mean you will and not me? I'm just as strong as you! And I can look after myself a lot better than you can too. I know you've had to help me with a few things so far but I've had to deal with the same and if not worse problems back at Konoha, and I was doing just fine until I met you. Of course I can survive this, how dare you underestimate me!"

Kiba started to laugh to himself, confusing Sakura, as he bit down into his apple. "See Sakura; you just answered your own question."

Her face turned slightly pink in embarrassment. If there was one thing she had to control other than her need to find out things, it would be her anger.

"I… I didn't mean that, what I just said about you."

"I know, I know. You got angry and said stuff you didn't mean, everyone does. But I just need to make you realise that sometimes it's this temper of yours that helps you solve your own problems."

Sakura smiled at him before returning her gaze to the dark sky above her. The baby appeared in her mind again. "Not every problem."

They talked for a while, as if they were like teenagers on a date. Sarcastically throwing insults at one another, the occasional braise of each other's skin, even those moments of eye contact which one would break due to the subtle feeling of awkwardness. They talked about everything and anything that would temporarily take their minds off of their problems and fear on board the ship.

The large white sails rippled as the ocean wind started to pick up, and Kiba realised that they had to quickly talk about what they gathered to talk about in the first place, before they both caught serious cases of pneumonia.

"Now I know it's the last thing you want to talk about, and I'm not too thrilled to discuss the situation either," Kiba started, his tone becoming more serious. "But you gotta tell me more information about this jerk you've been living with."

"He's not a jerk," Sakura said defensively. "He's actually a nicer guy than you think."

"Pfft, yeah, of course he is. Hence why he's keeping me and fifty other prisoners cramped up inside that filthy hull."

"He doesn't have a choice, Kiba."

"That's bullshit!" Kiba could feel the anger build inside of him the more Sakura defended the commodore. Didn't she realise that he had taken away so many people from their homes? "Oh, I'm sorry Sakura, I didn't realise that you'd decided to take his side now?"

"I'm not on his side!"

"Then why are you defending him like this? Have you forgotten about me and the rest of the other prisoners struggling to survive down there?"

"Kiba, shut it!" Sakura threw her hands to her ears in an attempt to block out his words before running over to the other side of the deck, peering over the railing. It was getting too much for her; having to be so stealthy all the time, helping Kiba, yet backstabbing the Commodore at the same time. She hadn't realised what she had gotten herself into.  
>"Hey, Sakura…" Kiba's voice appeared softly behind her after a short while. He rested a hand on her back and gently rubbed, trying to comfort her from his sudden outburst. He stood beside her as she peered into the water, her watery eyes catching the glare of the silver moon. "I'm sorry for what I said back there. I didn't mean it. I'm just tired, I'm sore, I'm hungry… it's just all a little much, you know?" he continued to look at her, using his words to seek forgiveness. "I never meant to upset you. You know I would never mean to do that."<p>

Sakura took a deep breath. "There's more people already there."

"What?" Kiba asked whilst raising an eyebrow, confused as she completely changed the subject.

"The Project, there's already more people at wherever we're headed. I found pieces of paper, something like, like a receipt on the Commodores desk concerning the arrival of three hundred other prisoners from a few months back." She cleared her throat and looked at Kiba, looking into his eyes whilst trying to hide the fear in her own. "Wherever we're going… There's already a community waiting for us."

Kiba was still for a moment, taking in her words. He didn't know whether to feel angry, shocked, or maybe a little relieved, maybe it was a good thing that people were already there, at least it provided a sense of comfort knowing there were actually people _surviving_ under the commodore and his forces.

He thought hard over Sakura's words, and tried to stick the pieces of the puzzle he had gathered so far together. So they were heading overseas, for starters, and there were people already there. They were planning on starting a nation of their own, where only the 'stronger people' were determined to survive and make the Project successful. Kiba felt a little more comfortable knowing this, and relaxed a little.

"Wanna do something fun tomorrow night?"

Sakura's eyes squinted in confusion. "…You're not going to ask anything more about the Project?"

Kiba turned around and headed back towards the rug which still nestled upon the opposite side of the deck. He gestured for her to sit next to him before resting his elbows upon his knees. He knew enough for now. "I know you don't like talking about it Sakura. I can see it when you speak; you feel guilty and scared, and to be honest I don't blame you. Sometimes I just get a little carried away with trying to find out information that I forget about the strain it puts on you."

"Doesn't matter Kiba, I'm getting used to it-

"No, tomorrow night you don't have to tell me anything." He smiled cheekily, plotting something behind his mischievous grin. "I'll plan something fun. Hopefully it will take your mind off things,"

"Are you asking me on a date, Mr Inuzuka?" smirked Sakura as she raised an eyebrow.

"A date? No. Dates are where you take a woman somewhere nice and treat them to dinner. Since I can't do that on this ship we're just going to have to wait until we reach land."

They both smiled at each other foolishly before Kiba continued. "Tomorrow I'm just going to call it, spending time with you."

"Sure, Kiba. I'd love to just spend time with you." She laughed at how it sounded, but knew that his intentions were good ones. Her tummy started to churn with a sense of excitement and she felt a wave of relief knowing that she didn't have to spend the next day hunting for information, although it wasn't the idea of scavenging up facts that was worrying her. Well, not as much as her other situation anyway. As thoughts of the Project pushed to the back of her mind, worries of her own little problem were pushing forward, _literally_.

* * *

><p><strong>Im so sorry about the wait! R7R if you have nothing better to do! :)<strong>


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